In the waning seconds of the trade deadline, The Los Angeles Dodgers bolstered their rotation by acquiring starting pitcher Jack Flaherty from the Detroit Tigers.
About an hour after the trade was reported, Flaherty's mother posted an incredible throwback photo to social media of Flaherty when he was a child wearing a full Dodgers uniform..
Flaherty's mother tagged the Dodgers and her son, and captioned the post “Circa 1997 …. Let's Go!” Flaherty, who was born in 1995, appears to be about two or three years old in the photo.
Flaherty was born in Burbank, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and went to high school in LA at Harvard-Westlake. Not only will this be a homecoming for Flaherty, but he'll be suiting up for the team he rooted for growing up.
Dodgers trade for Jack Flaherty
Even though the Dodgers pitching staff is slowly getting healthier, with Clayton Kershaw making his season debut and Tyler Glasnow returning from the injured list last week, they still need more arms. Walker Buheler suffered a setback in his rehab, Yoshinobu Yamamoto remains out, Emmet Sheehan and Dustin May are done for the season and James Paxton was traded to the Boston Red Sox.
Flaherty, who is having an incredible bounce-back season after struggling last year, should provide the Dodgers with some more stability in their rotation. Through 18 starts this season with the Tigers, Flaherty has a 7-5 record, 2.95 ERA, and 11.2 SO/9.
If the Dodgers are fully healthy, Flaherty gives them one of the most imposing potential postseason rotations in all of baseball. He would join Glasnow, Kershaw, and Yamamoto as the Dodgers' top four. No team in baseball, except potentially the Philadelphia Phillies, has the rotation depth to match that.
While the Dodgers may have been targeting some bigger names, like Flaherty's former Tigers teammate Tarik Skubal or Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet, neither of those players ended up getting moved, and Flaherty became the top starting pitcher to get dealt at the deadline.
The Dodgers were also able to get Flaherty for a relatively small prospect haul. Catcher/first baseman Thayron Liranzo, who headlined the return for the Tigers is the No. 8 prospect in the Dodgers system according to MLB Pipeline. Shortstop Trey Sweeney, who also went to Detroit in the deal, is considered a lower-level prospect. Compared to what the Toronto Blue Jays got from the Houston Astros for Yusei Kikuchi, this is some shrewd business from the Dodgers.
Follow Us
Subscribe
